In our study of the doctrine of freedom. John 8:32: Gal 5:1; We have noted that positive volition to any aspect of God's Word of truth creates freedom because God imputes grace through the divine decree to bless positive volition to truth and discipline negative volition to truth. Lam 3:21-23; James 4:6;
We noted that positive volition to divine establishment truth provides for temporal human freedom, positive volition toward the truth of the Gospel creates spiritual freedom and positive volition to the truth of Bible Doctrine creates experiential spiritual freedom and spiritual advance.
Establishment truth therefore establishes freedom within the national entity in the devil's world. Under the principles of divine establishment every person has free volition so they have the right to be wrong but when their negative volition metastases to the point they meddle with and violate the God given freedom, privacy or property of others their free negative volition becomes criminal.
We noted that the two enemies of freedom in the national entity are criminality and criminal nations that are run by criminals who establish and maintain policies within the nation that violate divine establishment principles.
Last time we concluded our study on criminality within the nation and started a study on criminal nations that are the external enemy of freedom.
There are two general categories of nations: those that are power oriented and function under some system of tyranny, and those nations that are freedom oriented and function under the laws of divine establishment.
Until Jesus Christ returns to rule the earth at the Second Advent, there will always be wars. Mark 13:5-8;
Freedom from the encroachment of power-oriented nations only occurs if the freedom-oriented nations have the will to defeat the power-oriented nations in warfare.
When the freedom-oriented nation loses the will to fight from lack of truth in the thinking of it's citizens then it is defeated in warfare because it refuses to fight. This is what our country faces at this moment in history.
The greatness of a nation can only be measured by the virtue of its freedom and the integrity of its authority that comes from truth.
Psa 119:45, "And I will seek freedom, for I seek Your doctrines, O God."
John 8:32, "and you shall know the truth (doctrine), and the truth shall make you free."
Gal 5:1, "It is for freedom that Christ has set us free; therefore keep standing fast and do not become entangled again in the yoke of slavery."
In context, the slavery addressed in these verses is on an individual basis so slavery refers to slavery to the arrogance skills, slavery to legalism and activism, and slavery to the dictates of the sin nature.
On a national level slavery or freedom is the function of the collective thought of the citizens of that nation and the freedom they have to make choices without external pressure.
This means that the major responsibility of the national government of the freedom-oriented nation is to protect the freedom of its citizens to express their free volitional choices by establishing and protecting the nation's borders.
Under the volitional clause of divine establishment nations have the right to be wrong just like people have the right to be wrong but neither nations nor people have the right to forcibly impose their incorrect views on others.
We have noted that when people invade others privacy they become criminal and God has delegated law enforcement to deal with criminals. Rom 13:3-4; God has delegated the military establishment with the responsibility of protecting the nation from external enemies for the same reason.
We have noted that truth in its three categories is the sine que non of freedom. When the people of a nation collectively think with truth the people in the nation have freedom. This tells us that to the extent truth is rejected and lost freedom is lost.
Free nations lose their internal freedom to criminals as their citizens reject truth and refuse or neglect to defend it. This loss of freedom occurs incrementally until the nation is weakened to the point where predator nations attack and left unanswered defeat the nation that was previously a free nation in warfare.
We refer to this incremental decline as the five cycles of discipline that we will study under doctrine of the five cycles of discipline.
God established the principle of nations in Gen 10:5; where He defined the borders, the language and the people of each nation.
The first client nation was Israel that was populated by the new racial species that was comprised of the children of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
Most of the Old Testament is focused on God's interaction with the Jewish client nations. There were five Jewish client nations in the dispensation of Israel so this is where we get the information regarding how God interacts with nations during human history.
The dispensation of Israel began with the Exodus in B.C. 1441 and terminated with the death of Jesus Christ in 30 A.D. Over the years, Israel existed in multiple instantiations.
The Theocratic Kingdom functioned under Moses after the Exodus to the time of Samuel, B.C. 1441 - 1020. The United Kingdom from King Saul to Solomon's son Rehoboam., B.C. 1020 - 926.
The Northern Kingdom aka Israel whose capital city was Samaria was comprised of the 10 tribes that split off after the civil war functioned from Jeroboam to Hoshea, B.C. 926 - 721.
The fifth cycle of discipline was administered to the Northern Kingdom by Assyria, commanded by Sargon II.
The Southern Kingdom aka Judah whose capital city was Jerusalem was comprised of the 3 remaining tribes functioned from Rehoboam to Zedekiah, B.C. 926 - 586.
The Chaldeans, commanded by Nebuchadnezzar, administered the fifth cycle of discipline to the Southern Kingdom in B.C. 586. They were held in captivity or slavery for Seventy years from B.C. 586 - 516. This was when Daniel and Esther lived in Babylon.
The restored nation of Judea functioned from Zerubbabel in B.C. 536 - A.D. 70. The fifth cycle of discipline was administered to Judea by the Romans, first under the command of Vespasian, followed by his son, Titus.
With the fall of Jerusalem in August of 70 A.D., 40 years after the Church Age began, there are no more Jewish client nations until after Jesus returns in His Second Advent.
In the meantime, we live in what the Bible refers to as the times of the Gentiles. That means that only a Gentile client nation can so function before God during the Church Age. The Gentile client nations started with SPQR in 70 AD.